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Ashley Nick, Amy Rodriguez Are Pac-10 First-Teamers

Four USC women's soccer players have been awarded all-conference honors from the Pac-10 this season, led by All-Pac-10 First Team selections Ashley Nick and Amy Rodriguez. It is the second first-team pick for the two seniors, while sophomore Ashli Sandoval earns her first All-Pac-10 Second Team accolades, and freshman Brittany Kerridge earned a nod on the All-Freshman Team.

Making their fourth consecutive NCAA appearance this year, Women of Troy currently are setting up for the NCAA Third Round, as the defending national champions picked up two wins on the road during the NCAA First and Second Rounds last week. USC finished third in the Pac-10 standings and is 16-4-2 overall entering this week's NCAA Third Round. With Nick, Rodriguez and Sandoval landing spots on this year's All-Pac-10 Teams, USC marks its fewest all-conference selections since 2004. UCLA and Stanford each had seven players earn All-Pac-10 first team, second team or honorable mention accolades; Washington State had five; California had four; and Arizona State and Washington had two each.

USC's two first-team selections this year both were named Preseason All-Americans and are on the watch list for the Hermann Trophy. Starring for the Women of Troy since setting foot at USC as freshmen in 2005, Nick and Rodriguez were All-Pac-10 selections last year when USC pushed through to claim the Pac-10's first-ever women's soccer NCAA championship.

Senior forward Amy Rodriguez picks up her second career All-Pac-10 First Team pick this year, last earning the honor as a freshman in 2005 and garnering second team accolades in 2007. She leads the Trojans in scoring so far this year with eight goals, pulling her career total up to 31 to rank No. 4 all-time at USC. She has moved up to the same slot in career points, holding 79, thanks to 17 career assists - four of which have come during her senior season so far. All told, Rodriguez stands among the top-6 in four different career categories at Troy. She is No. 2 all-time in career game-winning goals with 12 (three this year) and is No. 6 in career assists. A 2008 Olympic gold-medalist with Team USA, Rodriguez returned to USC for her senior season and continued to make history, becoming the first Trojan since 1997 to notch a hat trick after a three-goal performance on October 2.

Senior captain and midfielder Ashley Nick was an All-Pac-10 First Team selection in 2007 as well. She has punched in five goals and has six assists so far this year to now hold USC's 10th-best mark of 11 career assists. She recently scored in back-to-back games for the Trojans, helping USC move through the NCAA First and Second Rounds with her goals scored last week in Provo, Utah. She has never missed a game as a Trojan during her four seasons, and has set a season best mark this year with her five goals scored on the year.

Starring for the Trojans on the All-Pac-10 Second Team is sophomore midfielder Ashli Sandoval, who leads USC in points on the year with 21. She is up to nine assists this season and has tripled last year's goal tally with six so far this year. Sandoval currently holds the No. 5 all-time career assists mark with 20 and ranks No. 71 in the nation with an average of 0.41 assists per game for the Trojans. She was selected to the Pac-10's All-Freshman Team last season.

This year's All-Freshman selection from USC is midfielder Brittany Kerridge, who worked her way into a starting role for the Trojans quickly this season. She holds one goal and has three assists in her first season at Troy, having delivered the assist on USC's score during the NCAA Second Round match at BYU over the weekend. This is the first honor of her USC career.

Also recently announced was TopDrawerSoccer.com's Team of the Season national selections. USC senior defender Janessa Currier earned a spot on the Second Team, with Amy Rodriguez honored on the Third Team. A full-time starter for the past three years, Currier is in her final season with the Trojans and stands out as one of the most formidable defensive players in the game. She also had the game-winning goal last week in USC's win during the NCAA First Round to bring her career scoring total up to eight goals along with four career assists. Currier earned honorable mention from TopDrawerSoccer.com last year along with Rodriguez.

USC is awaiting the conclusion of tonight's UCLA-San Diego NCAA Second Round match to determine who the Trojans will face in this weekend's NCAA Third Round.